Why Do We Elect Stupid People?

Paul Krugman
Eugene Robinson
John Batchelor

Emphasis on Colorado:
George Will

"In the punditry business, it's considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people. But at this point, it's impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats... They want somebody to make it all better. Now." - Eugene Robinson

"Will you tell those dumb asses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I'm on the camera?" - Ken Buck

Looking forwards to the midterm elections, November seems like an impossibly long time away, anything can happen from now until then. In terms of politics as street theater, the current elections are wonderful entertainment, with promises of more to come every minute... I watched Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer jam her foot in her mouth last night during a debate against her opponent.  In her opening remarks, she took three sentences to list the dubious accomplishments of her administration, then her mind went blank on camera for 16 very long seconds. She topped off the brain fart with a silly grin and giggle, which made her seem amateurish and may have cost her the election, and most certainly lost her the  ensuing debate.

To make matters worse, during her public defense of signing Arizona's immigration bill, she made statements saying that people were being beheaded in the Arizona desert, which is why she wanted to stop more immigrants from coming into her state. It was a lie, there never have been any headless bodies found in Arizona, that wonderful statistic belongs further South, in Mexico proper. But, Jan's opponent seized on that statement during the debate, which she ignored. Unfortunately, questions from reporters after the debate all had to do with her ignoring the headless body comments, which she painfully tried to also ignore and turn the focus on her opponent. You could see her handlers grimacing in the background, and when one reporter asked her why she wouldn't answer the question, she ended the session, turned around and ran away. She made herself become a figure of ridicule, someone who freezes in front of difficult situations, and finally, as someone who has rather limited intelligence.

Which brings me to my question of the day: Why do we elect stupid people?

I am disturbed by the prediction that the Republicans will probably win enough seats to take over the House of Representatives, giving John Boehner the job as Speaker of the House. John has the intelligence of a tree stump that has been hit by lightening a few times, and now serves as the best spot for the neighborhood dogs to piss on. The Republican Party is either too old and stubborn or too dumb to have learned from its recent past mistakes, and has failed to come up with new, interesting candidates for elected offices. Which has paved the way for the offbeat, quirky candidates like Rand Paul and Mario Rubio, and the ones who are living in their own alternate universe, like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and the demon sheep herself, Carly Fiorina. If the crazy ones get elected, they will spend a lot of our tax dollars and much wasted time on frivolous pursuits. Instead of having some extra brain power to help us find pragmatic solutions to our problems, they will huddle in front of some Fox news camera and mis-quote from the Constitution. Linda McMahon may have made some good television kicking professional wrestlers in the balls, but I don't want to listen to her views on foreign policy, much less give her the authority to act on them...

Most GOP press conferences are as scripted and phony as professional wrestling, as were all public performances of George W Bush. Former members of his administration have been trying to rewrite history by claiming that he was an intelligent man, even Tony Blair mentions this in his memoirs. George is not a dumb person but he is an idiot. He reads a lot, but the books are mostly mass market fiction, or what I call supermarket fiction, because you can always find one of their books on the shelf of your local food market alongside the National Enquirer and People magazine. George is also a recovering alcoholic who, in his past, constantly had his judgement and decision making facilities impaired from imbibing too much on a regular basis. He also froze and went into panic attacks in the face of crisis, which is now being spun as his having empathy and calmness before making bold decisions. He and his ideological pals lied to the American public and sent thousands of our children to their deaths in not one, but two wars that were unjustified, and caused the destruction of the governments and social fabric of those countries, causing hundreds of thousands of their deaths, without shame or apology.

As a result, we have a population that doesn't trust the government, and now seems to trust our educational institutions even less. Instead of reading and doing our homework, we watch the news for an instant opinion, dress up in clothing from 1776, and pretend that we know the intentions of our founding fathers. Instead of sharing opinions and working collectively to come up with solutions to our problems, we look to our politicians for an instant fix, and get angry when they don't work, because we elected some dumbass who would rather take bribes from lobbyists than work with representatives across the aisle. As a result, we get a president who is trying to intellectually find a way out of the mess the Republicans left for him, and all he gets from them is the Party of NO and character assassination...  No wonder why our younger generations make fun of us; pass me another prozac and viagra, please, I think it's time for Glenn Beck...

ps:

When Sarah Palin was outed for not reading very much by Katy Couric, she put her on her vendetta list. Woe to Ms Couric if ever Sarah becomes president, as she will be banished to the wilds of Alaska, along with the Murkowskis and every other being on her list. I think I am number 4000... After an initial attempt at answering questions from rational, normal people, the campaigns of such offbeat and irrational candidates like Rand, Jan, Sharron, Carly and Linda must spend the rest of their time and energy keeping their meal ticket from making embarrassing scenes in public. Which is good for Fox news, they get exclusive coverage of these folks, and makes it so delicious for the rest of us as it gets closer to election day and forces them into the harsh light of reality... Rock on Jan Brewer!